Edge emitting semiconductor lasers generally have a waveguide in order to guide the radiation generated in an active zone of the semiconductor laser within the semiconductor laser.
Conventional waveguides generally comprise p-doped semiconductor layers, which can lead to a high series resistance of the device on account of the low hole mobilities. In order to reduce the series resistance of such a component, it has been attempted, for example, to increase the p-type doping of the p-doped region of the waveguide. In that case, however, there is the risk of the losses of the waveguide increasing which can result in an increase in the threshold current of the laser.